Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris takes home bronze medal nearly a year after being in a coma

By BRETT BODNER

Feb 12, 2018 | 3:45 PM

From a coma to earning a medal in the Winter Olympics.

Canadian snowboard Mark McMorris overcame great odds to land a spot on the podium in Pyeongchang. McMorris took home the bronze medal Sunday in the snowboard slopestyle competition nearly a year after a crash that left him with life-threatening injuries.

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McMorris was filming in Canada last year when he drifted too far off a jump and hit a tree 10 feet in the air on the left side of his body, USA Today reports.

After being helicoptered to the hospital, doctors determined McMorris had 17 broken bones, a collapsed lung and ruptured spleen. He was put into a medically induced coma and had to have surgery on his jaw, arm, lung and spleen.

The 24-year-old was expected to be hospitalized for a month, but was able to leave after 12 days.

"They just kept pulling out tubes and I kept getting better each day," McMorris told USA Today. "They were really tripping on how fast I was healing, but I was in pretty good shape going into it and just a young guy having all those weird injuries."

Highlights from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang

McMorris had already earned a spot on the Canadian team for the Olympics so he was able to take his time and recover to get ready for this year's games. He was able to get back in the snow by September of last year.

The 24-year-old not only went on to recover, but he finished in the top three of the men's slopestyle.

After winning bronze, McMorris took to Twitter to share a grateful post that included photos of him in a coma and one of him with his medal.

"I was immediately thinking about things I'd have changed or wished the judges had changed. ... But then I needed to pinch myself, and with what my last year's been like, people would die for a medal at the Olympics. ... I mean, I nearly did die, so I'm pretty stoked," McMorris said.

McMorris added that his recovery was "a miracle" and he's "really thankful."

He'll have the chance to earn another medal when he competes in next week's big air competition.